Six Years!

I am going to get that Kitty!!!
Gotcha....the cat's days are numbered
Getting ready for a bike ride with Mom

John and I celebrated our six year anniversary on Sunday. Unfortunately I do not have pictures to help tell the story of what we did for our anniversary weekend, but it is probably pretty typical of John and I. On Saturday night, we decided to try a new mexican restaurant in a nearby town. Their website said it was upscale mexican with a southwestern flair and it reminded me of my favorite restaurant in New Jersey. The restaurant had a children's menu and said it was "family friendly" so we decided to take the boys. When we walked in the door, it was pretty obvious that was not a place where nearly 9 month old babies come for dinner very often! It was a little more upscale than family friendly. We did survive thanks to a fountain that Luke was mesmorized with and several crackers for Liam. I think they may have tried to seat at least three people near us, all of which declined and I can't say that i blame them too much. Our waitress was quite nice and loved the boys and overall the boys were actually quite good, though I don't think we will be going back to that restuarant for awhile. After we quickly ate and exited, we were looking for a latte and I suggested this place that I thought might have great lattes like what we used to find in Little Italy or some of our favorite places in NYC. This place ended up being a wine bar that rarely does takeout lattes. They did have a nice latte, but it was obvious by the "to go" cups that my suggestion to try this place was not a good one. Overall, we have a nice anniversary. We celebrated last week with John's parents and again over the weekend. Our water heater went out over the weekend so we had to boil water to bathe the boys and take very quick cold showers!

Our big news from the boys is that Liam is really mobile now. He is crawling very well and is quite fast. His technique is not too smooth, but he gets around. Luke is still content to watch his brother, but is making a little progress. I am posting a few random pictures from the weekend.

Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers Visit

Check out the goats on top of the barn!
Hay Mountain
Playing with Dad
Dad and Boys on Hay Mountain

Grandma Carrithers with Boys
Grandma, Grandpa, John, and boys
Luke & Liam
Jokers
mmmm Apple

Look out Lance...Here comes Luke and Liam!

The boys have enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers this week. We have had lots of fun showing Grandma and Grandpa all the new things we can do and we have enjoyed the extra company and help. The boys went to an apple orchard for the first time today and had a great time. They took a hay ride, studied the pigmy goats, picked (and tasted) apples, climbed hay mountain with dad, and enjoyed a beautiful warm fall day.

We have also enjoyed a few rides in the Burley bike carrier recently. John and I were able to get in 30 miles over the weekend with the boys. We rode to a park, ate lunch and then rode home. The boys seemed to enjoy it and took a nice nap on the way home.


Liam is beginning to crawl a little or at least scoot along on the floor. Luke, however, is still quite content to sit and watch things around him. He does pull up and stand quite a bit, but does not really enjoy being on his belly.


Enjoy!

JUMP, JUMP, JUMP, JUMP Around!

yummy remote control...Luke is helping mom to make a sandwich while Liam sleeps
much better in the mouth
Sweet and Very Patient Luke
Dad and the boys

We love to Jump!
It is hard to get a picture when they are not jumping!
Basketball, Baseball, the Boys and the DOG!
Liam

As is typical of babies, everything goes to the mouth. If it has not already been in the mouth, it is on the way to the mouth as you can see in some of our pictures from the week.

The boys got a few new toys so they can start practicing their baseball swing and their basketball shots. The dog did not quite understand the idea of having a ball for someone other than herself so we will see how well we can separate dog baseballs and baby baseballs!

The boys love their Johnny Jumpers (the swings that hang in the doorway) so we finally broke down and bought a second one at the resale shop. They loved jumping together and found it very funny that they could be side by side and both jumping at the same time. It was funny to watch the two of them watching each other!

We have had beautiful warmer weather here this week and have enjoyed lots of time running and biking outside. We will hold on to the warmer temperatures as long as possible. Have a wonderful weekend.

First Playdate

Babies, Babies Everywhere
Sophia, Charlie, Jack, Luke, and Liam
Rain Jackets for our first run in the rain (with the weather shield)
Dad's Running Hat
Liam loves the Kitty!

I recently joined the MOMs (Mothers of Multiples) Connection in our area and we had our first group meeting last week. Translation for me....THREE hours of no babies! At the meeting, I sat with other moms of twins and higher order multiples that had children the same age. After the meeting, we all decided to organize a playdate and we got together today for our first playdate! There were a total of five moms and 10 babies all between the ages of roughly 6 and 9 months (9 boys and 1 lonesome girl!). The host of the playdate also has a daughter, Sophia, that was quite helpful in entertaining the babies. We had a great time talking and watching the babies interact. They were all exhausted and cranky by the end of the time, but I think it was probably the most fun for the moms to have someone else to talk with. I tried to get a couple of pictures. Not all ten babies are in the pictures because I was too busy comforting our cranky boys by the end of the time period to snap any additional pictures, but you can get the idea.

As we have said before, the boys love the jogging stroller. So much so, that John and I took them on their first run out in the rain over the weekend. We have a weather shield so the boys were cozy and dry, but John and I were a little wet. It rained most of the weekend so we all needed to spend a little time outside despite the weather.

Liam also has a strong attraction to our cat. He loves to watch ZuZu and could probably sit and watch her for hours if the cat would hang around that long. I told ZuZu that she is in big trouble once Liam becomes mobile. ZuZu does not exactly share the same fondness for Liam that he shows for her!

Happy 8 Month Birthday Liam & Luke!

We are not quite crawling yet, but we are close (especially Liam)
We love to play on the floor and take each others pacifiers
and Jump, Jump, Jump
And ride in the jogging stroller.....
and then drink from mom's water bottle
and then get "kisses" from Adi
We are learning to feed ourselves
and practicing our standing and pulling up.

Happy 8 month Birthday Liam and Luke! We love you and look forward to your continued growth and progress.

Mom and Dad

Take Me Out to the Ballgame.....

Dad and the Boys
Mom and Boys
The Twins
We are holding hands
Luke being Silly with Mom

The boys went to their first Twins Baseball game this afternoon and had a great time. John and I were both suprised at how good they were. They really seemed to enjoy all of the sights and new sounds. I am not sure Liam moved for the first 30 minutes while he watched everything around him. We made it in time for the first pitch and managed to stay until the 7th inning. We probably could have stayed a little longer, but we wanted to make this a memorable trip (good memories, that is). The Twins ended up losing 7 to 5 against the Detroit Tigers, but it was a good game. We enjoyed having John around for an extra day this weekend. I am posting a few pictures from the boys first game as well as our play time over the weekend. We are looking forward to many games in the future!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Getting Ready to Ride in the Burley
All Strapped in!
Fun at the Lake
Sitting with Dad at the Lake

Luke at story time
Attentive Liam
Everything goes to the Mouth....

John's birthday was Thursday and the company he works for gives each person the day off on their birthday. He was able to take today off so that we could enjoy a long weekend. We had a great time celebrating his birthday (a little belated). We went to storytime at Barnes and Noble with the boys. I have taken the boys several times to story time at the library as well and they love it. They are both very attentive and interested in the stories (or at least appear to be). Even the lady doing the story time remarked how attentive Liam was!

We also took the boys down to the Lakes near downtown Minnesota. As one of my birthday presents, we purchased a Burley bike trailer. These trailers are very popular in Minnesota and so much fun to ride on all the paved trails around the lake. The boys seemed to enjoy at least the first half of the ride, but were both asleep by the end. This was the first time John and I have been able to ride together in a little over a year. We last rode while living in New Jersey before we found out I was pregnant so it was great to be back on the bike together as this was a weekly hobby for us before the boys were born.

The boys are really sitting up well and beginning to pick up small pieces of food off their high chair trays. They love love to eat yogurt, but don't turn much of anything down. Liam has two top teeth coming in and Luke is getting more hair. They are a lot of fun and changing daily.

Enjoy!

Happy Labor Day!

My Three Boys (Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers gave us our shirts!)

Liam loves to sleep on his belly with his bottom in the air
Luke in a toy wagon that holds blocks
mmm Spaghetti
yummy Spaghetti
Enjoying Some Water after our Run around the Lakes

We hope everyone had a very nice Labor Day Weekend. We enjoyed having John home for an extra day and getting to spend lots of time outside enjoying the inevitable end of the summer in Minnesota. While we did not go out of town for Labor Day, we enjoyed time at the house just playing with the boys.

Luke and Liam tried their first spaghetti on Friday night and seemed to really enjoy it. John and I tend to eat a lot of spaghetti on Fridays prior to long runs over the weekend in order to carbo load so the boys are learning early.

On Saturday, we went out for dinner and welcomed lots of comments from people. We are always quite the production when we go out to dinner and typically spend a good part of the meal answering questions about the boys. Our most commonly asked question, of course, "Are they Twins?" Although I know they do not look to be identical, I find it hard to imagine that one could have two babies that close in age and not be twins!

On Labor Day, we went down to what Minnesotans refer to as "the Lakes". There are a group of lakes near downtown Minneapolis that are connected by a series of running and biking trails. We ran on several of the trails and then enjoyed a nice lunch at a great little deli that reminded us of several delis we loved in New York City.

We hope you all enjoyed the holiday!